I read how preoccupied Rosanne de Giorgio is regarding the possibility of addressing the problem of school hours and holidays vis-à-vis working mothers’ complaints (TMID, 12 July).

She said that she spends long hours after school preparing new activities and challenges for students. But why should they take work home in the first place? Look how simple it is. If school employees work 40 hours a week like the rest of the nation then they would obviously have ample time to finish their work at school and at the same time children may participate in sports activities.

If this is not enough, then there is the break time and free lessons to prepare the work. Workers who generally work just 40 hours a week are not officially entitled to breaks, let alone if they work much less! Remember, Malta is labelled as having the fattest children in Europe. So we would kill two birds with one stone.

I am not excluding the fact that there may be a handful of school workers who resign every year due to the stress that they face. But the adverts for applications for most jobs nowadays say that the employee would be required to work under constant pressure. Read the newspapers.

Consider the hospital employees. We always hear about the medical brain drain and the shortage of health care professionals, which explains the long waiting lists and time spent at hospital.

The problem of government pharmacies is an excellent case in point. Patients all over Malta, instead of thanking God that they are entitled to free medicines, are complaining of excessively long, stressful queues. So you can imagine how exhausted the poor dedicated workers, who work in these government pharmacies for 40 hours a week throughout the whole year, must feel! The problem will not, however, be solved by offering them excellent incentives of work. Remember, free time is a luxury. What’s the use of having a million euros in your bank account if you do not have ample time to enjoy life, especially during peak holi-day periods? The problem, they are saying, will be solved by the Pharmacist Of Your Choice (POYC) scheme, while transferring these qualified and experienced pharmacy workers to different work settings such as hospital wards.

Would your union accept this? We all saw how the MUT reacted this week regarding qualified people in sensitive areas such as facilitators and kindergarten assistants. Now, isn’t health also a sensitive issue? They say “health comes first and foremost”.

They also say that the Maltese climate does not permit teaching during summer. If this is so, how do other Maltese people work during summer? Do they all have air-conditioners? Again, children would participate in physical activity classes, cultural tours and would be assisted in the fields that they seem poor in. Or is the latter problem solved by sending them to private lessons? No, how could this be?! They cannot learn during hot weather – there is usually only a fan or two in the basement garage where they go, how is this possible?!

In the UK, for example, the summer holidays are for no longer than six weeks. They do, however, have a much wetter and harsher winter season than we do, so should they go to school in winter?

C. MICALLEF

Fgura